Whilst the global environment continues to deteriorate, cities have emerged as places of achievement and optimism. "Cleaner and greener" cities have become a requirement of global competition and environmental protection is held to be vital to improving the lives of citizens. However, the global and urban dimensions of sustainability circle upwards and around each other like a double helix. Now into the twenty-first century, the conflictive geopolitics of international development and collaborative urban environmental governance twist around each other with snake-like charm, and venom.
This book enquires into why cities have embraced environmental issues with enthusiasm. It locates urban environmentalism within current debates on globalization and neoliberal urbanization, and critically outlines the political success of urban environmental agendas in the postmodern condition of risk and individualization. These themes are subjected to theoretical critique and methodological exploration through Marxist analysis, discourse theory and a dialectical or relation understanding of urban environmentalism within the disruptive and often violent urban transformation of the last two decades. This approach is then applied through three in-depth second-city studies in contrasting development contexts: Birmingham in the UK, Lodz in Poland, and Medellin in Colombia.
In imaginatively bringing together a wide range of disciples, this book makes an important contribution to understanding urban environmentalism as an ideological form, operating at the levels of strategic economic interests and everyday social practices to facilitate, in place-specific ways, the legitimation of neoliberal citygovernments and control/regulation of increasingly fragmented, unequal and conflictive urban societies. It will be essential reading for students of planning, geography and environmental studies, as well as to all those interested in sociology and politics of sustainable development.

Whilst the global environment continues to deteriorate, cities have emerged as places of achievement and optimism. "Cleaner and greener" cities have become a requirement of global competition and environmental protection is held to be vital to improving the lives of citizens. However, the global and urban dimensions of sustainability circle upwards and around each other like a double helix. Now into the twenty-first century, the conflictive geopolitics of international development and collaborative urban environmental governance twist around each other with snake-like charm, and venom.
This book enquires into why cities have embraced environmental issues with enthusiasm. It locates urban environmentalism within current debates on globalization and neoliberal urbanization, and critically outlines the political success of urban environmental agendas in the postmodern condition of risk and individualization. These themes are subjected to theoretical critique and methodological exploration through Marxist analysis, discourse theory and a dialectical or relation understanding of urban environmentalism within the disruptive and often violent urban transformation of the last two decades. This approach is then applied through three in-depth second-city studies in contrasting development contexts: Birmingham in the UK, Lodz in Poland, and Medellin in Colombia.
In imaginatively bringing together a wide range of disciples, this book makes an important contribution to understanding urban environmentalism as an ideological form, operating at the levels of strategic economic interests and everyday social practices to facilitate, in place-specific ways, the legitimation of neoliberal citygovernments and control/regulation of increasingly fragmented, unequal and conflictive urban societies. It will be essential reading for students of planning, geography and environmental studies, as well as to all those interested in sociology and politics of sustainable development.

Volume 13 deals with the interaction of music and politics, considering a broad range of genres, authors, composers, and artists in Germany since the nineteenth century. A particularly iconic image of German Reunification is that of Mstislav Rostropovich playing from J. S. Bach's cello suites in front of the Berlin Wall on November 11, 1989. Thirty years on, it is timely to reconsider the cross-fertilization of music and politics within the German-speaking context. Frequently employed as a motivational force, a propaganda tool, or even a weapon, music can imbue a sense of identity and belonging, triggering both comforting and disturbing memories. Playing a key role in the formation of Heimat and "Germanness," it serves ideological, nationalistic, and propagandistic purposes conveying political messages and swaying public opinion. This volume brings together essays by historians, literary scholars, and musicologists on topics concerning the increasing politicization of music, especially since the nineteenth century. They cover a broad spectrum of genres, musicians, and thinkers, discussing the interplay of music and politics in "classical" and popular music: from the rediscovery and repurposing of Martin Luther in nineteenth-century Germany to the exploitation of music during the Third Reich, from the performative politics of German punk and pop music to the influence of the events of 1988/89 on operatic productions in the former GDR - up to the relevance of Ernst Bloch in our contemporary post-truth society.

This first substantial history of Italian literature to appear in the English language for forty years provides a comprehensive survey of one of the richest and most influential literatures of Europe. Leading scholars describe and assess the work of a wide range of writers who have contributed to the Italian literary tradition from its earliest origins to the present day. The volume is accessible to the general reader as well as to students and scholars. Translations are provided, along with maps, chronological charts, and up-to-date bibliographies.